Made in Hackney: Vel-Oh bicycle bags
Zulfi and Greta wearing their Vel-Oh bags - Credit: Archant
Zulfi Iqbal and his wife Greta Jankunaite decided to design their own bicycle bags to overcome the “frustration” of cycling to work with one bag and having to change over to another.
They design and make everything for Vel-Oh in their Well Street home, and all the materials are sourced in the UK, including British Millerain waxed cotton and leather.
“It was frustrating cycling to work with one bag and having to change to another bag, and we thought why not design a bag that does both - surely there must be a combination of these two together where you can still look stylish but also have the practicality of using it on a bike.
It took them nine months to design their first bag and another year testing it before they launched the range last summer.
“We were testing how it looked, the comfort factor, and if it was presentable to go to work in,” said Zulfi.
You may also want to watch:
“We tested it on the Dunwich Dynamo, a cycle ride which starts at London fields and goes to Dunwich beach in Suffolk, which is a 125 mile night ride, and it was a success - so then we went to market.”
Vel-Oh bags are sold in Velorution cycle store where Zulfi, 43, is store manager.
Most Read
- 1 From Shoreditch to Las Vegas: New bingo hall for Hackney
- 2 Covid cases drop in Hackney for the first time since May
- 3 Pastor Morris tribute: 'We don’t know what would have happened to us if it wasn’t for him'
- 4 'Heads need to roll', says domestic violence campaigner after 'reckless' council data blunder
- 5 Tube strike suspended to allow for further talks
- 6 Crowdfunder for Prodigy's Keith Flint mural to raise mental health awareness
- 7 'It's like toilet', say Dalston residents who have had enough of broken locks, rats and scaffolding
- 8 Massive drugs haul suspected to be worth over £1million seized in Hackney
- 9 All Points East: Radio 6 stage take-over plus more main stage acts
- 10 £5.75m investment agreed for "historic" Clapton leisure centre
They have just launched a kick-starter to fund four new bag designs.
